


Regia

by Krivoklatsko



Category: Kingdom Hearts, RWBY
Genre: Aquanort - Freeform, Crossover, F/M, RNJR - Freeform, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2019-09-25 23:03:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17130380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krivoklatsko/pseuds/Krivoklatsko
Summary: Remnant crashes into The End, giving Aqua a chance to escape the darkness into the light. Team RNJR just wants to reach Mistral.





	1. The End

Aqua clutched her Wayfinder and thought fondly of her last visit here.

A spaceship hangar, “Mos Eisley” stamped over the entrance.

But the hangar was empty. No _Falcon_ in sight. She’d helped her friends Luke and Han escape from here. And maybe, somewhere in the vastness of the universe, they were alive.

She couldn’t feel Luke’s heartbeat in the Wayfinder. Maybe she was being optimistic again.

“At least,” she mused, “You escaped the destruction of this world.”

She walked. And for the sake of her sanity, or for its lack, she talked to no one. “I wonder what you would think of this place, Luke. No wind whispers in the space port. No music warms the cantina. No smells in the market.”

She rubbed her fingertips together. Haptics failed to tease her. A mere tingle where her mind thought something was missing.

She remembered the smells and sounds, the insufferable heat. All missing. Even the hues were grayed. Twin suns lit Tatooine, but the light filtered to her unnaturally dim.

Places like this- places unmade by the Heartless- functioned like pictures, barely interactive. Conceptual images of what once was.

Tatooine, like any other world, was a matrix of experiences. Stripped of those, the place was mere nostalgia. An unlit stage. A play without actors. A theme park after hours.

She passed an imperial checkpoint, the very same that Old Ben had waved her and Luke through. She had to step cautiously. “Soldiers lie dead, their weapons scattered, helmets gouged by claws.”

A muffled clatter drew her attention. Something had fallen, maybe a cargo container. She summoned the Keyblade to her hand and held very still. Sometimes it was just a noise.

And sometimes, The Hunter in the Dark had found her again.

“Just a noise this time,” she decided.

At the city’s edge, she spun up the Wayfinder’s compass. Sand stretched to the horizon, and beyond.

She smiled. “Only the desert seems peaceful. There was never any life here. There was nothing here to lose. Except…”

Somewhere in this desert was a place she wanted to visit again. One more time, before it was gone.

Her memories were all that mattered now, all that she owned and could care for.

Everything else was gone.

Every friend.

Every family.

Every iota of hope and pride.

She strode endlessly, her feet silent in the sand.

She knew somewhere ahead was the escape pod where she’d first met a chipper, chirping droid and its talkative companion. She stopped there to adjust course again. Last time, she’d felt thirsty, and quenched that thirst from a canteen. She touched her lips and tried to make the memory feel real.

She scooped sand into her hand, and didn’t feel it trickling away.

Her body felt numb.

The rest of her hurt.

She picked another heading, and set out again, past a new landmark. A hulking capital ship haunted the desert, its gray mass wedged into the ground like a mountain.

She’d warned the Grand Moff about using Darkness.

She’d warned everyone.

The farm peeked above the horizon, first as pillars of smoke; Then the moisture towers, bent and broken; and the domes, cracked like dropped eggs.

She had fond memories of Luke’s family: Owen’s stories about good days at the market, and Beru’s about better days at the fair. Luke’s lopsided smile as he talked about the time he’d scared off raiders. Owen’s paternal frown and glare.

She didn’t want to see this.

She had to.

The first night that they’d sat together at the dinner table, she’d felt a rush of worry. Watching her hosts and waiting to see the customs. Owen and Beru and Luke bowed their heads and closed their eyes. And together, the four of them offered a prayer: For a good harvest, for Luke’s safety, for Beru’s medical treatment, for peace throughout the galaxy, for Aqua to find her friends.

Her feet brought her to the ruins.

And her eyes found their bodies, burning, charred. Owen and Beru had at least died together. It was hard to see them this way.

Harder still to see the human bootprints, lined up before them.

Aqua covered her mouth. No matter how hard she squeezed her eyes, the image remained, and the tears escaped her.

She remembered Owen’s stone-faced optimism. Confronting everyone’s worries, he’d answered, "You have to have faith that things will work themselves out in the end, that the Light will triumph over the Dark."

She had lost that faith.

A wave of shadow covered the planet, all light rolled up like a scroll.

She looked up, saw the first of two suns siphoning into The End. Its event horizon sparkled and sang as another light extinguished in the void. The second followed instantly, and a Perfect Darkness settled across Tatooine.

Aqua wept.

And to everyone, she cried, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Ventus’ image appeared beside her, illusory or imaginary. Another, Terra, sat and stared at the sky, exactly as they used to. Only she hadn’t sobbed and screamed back then.

The desert shifted- the horizon stretched out into The End, and the event horizon disassembled all that remained.

In a moment, this place would be just another memory, irrecoverable. Just a pain in the hearts of those willing to bear it.

Sand spilled into the jaws of time, like an hourglass broken and unwinding, slipping from beneath her feet. The moisture towers fizzled and became dust, turned their way towards The End and accepted their new state of matter. Of not mattering.

And in a moment, so would Aqua.

 

Who would remember her, or the worlds she’d held dear?

A small part of Terra, now possessed.

Ventus, if he ever awakened.

Perhaps King Mickey would someday recall that she existed, and sadly say, “That’s a long story, for another time.”

Ultimately, her struggles hadn’t mattered to her opponents- only to her. And only for those moments that she’d imagined life getting better, stargazing from the Land of Departure.

If she kept struggling, kept ahead of The End, maybe she would see her home again, and watch the castle slide into this final place.

She opened her eyes. This total destruction was beautiful.

Kaleidoscopic.

Hypnotic.

The longer she ran, the longer this would hurt.

But she would still fall, just as everyone before her.

Maybe she would be fortunate enough for a burial. More fortunate than Owen and Beru. But the soil that held her would drift here, slowly and surely.

“Everything comes to this place. This is The End,” she admitted, “And there is no escape.”

She would never again think that she could save anything. She would never try.

Wind tickled her ears.

The sky lightened, and something cosmically large growled.

She looked up, then _up_ , and turned to see it.

Another world was approaching, charging as if to ram her.

She wondered if that was possible. She wondered what happened when worlds collide.

And then she didn’t have to wonder.


	2. Red Like Thorns

There is no map for the lost.

Four Huntsmen learned this the hardest way.

Their feet had a path. Their hands held a map. But they could not reconcile the two. The last three rivers didn’t match anything on it.

Ruby handed the map to Jaune. It was his turn try.

She watched him fidget with the page, frustrated, unable to focus. He wiped away phantom tears, and tried to look okay. Even straightened his shoulders and said, “Yeah. This is good. I haven’t been to Shion for a while, but I recognize a lot of this terrain. I think we’re nearby.”

He glanced to Nora and Ren in the rear. They were too busy bickering to notice him. He looked to Ruby. She didn’t fake a smile for that act.

Jaune sighed and whispered, “Do you think we can really make it to Mistral without CCT maps?”

Ruby nodded, bobbing her dark crimson hair. She forced a smile and chimed, “We don’t need a path to Mistral, Jaune. We just need a path to Shion.”

Jaune nodded blonde. “And from Shion to the next town. Okay.”

Crickets chirped. Birds sang. Their packs and weapons jingled as they walked.

Ruby wiped sweat from her brow and offered, “You want me to try reading the map again?”

“No need,” Jaune huffed. “We’re on a road. It goes _somewhere_.”

He folded the map, aggravated, and stuffed it in his pack.

Ruby asked, “Do you think it goes to Shion?”

Jaune looked at his feet and gathered his attitude. Finally, glancing to her and remembering the question, he answered, “No matter what the map says, there’s only one way to know.”

Ruby nodded, glad he’d recovered. She turned to check on Ren and Nora in the rear.

 

Nora whispered her concerns a little too loudly, gesturing wildly with her arms so that her pink combat dress made her look like a dancer.

“Look, Ren… Ruby’s not the one I’m worried about. She’s been lost plenty of times, and always found her way home.”

Ren sighed, far more demure. His green tunic and upright posture made him look like a statesman. And murmuring as if correcting a _faux pas_ , he said, “Ruby _believed_ that there was a home to return to. Losing faith is subtle and powerful, Nora.”

“Okay, but, look. Jaune is kind of-“ She bit the inside of her cheek, then blurted, “He can’t be leader. Ruby’s leading from behind, but she’s _taking_ the _lead_ , Ren. Not Jaune. And Jaune’s…” She squinted and held out her arms towards his back.

“Ruby is too young,” Ren disagreed. Monotone and composed, he articulated, “She’s dragging us into pointless fights. She might look okay to you, Nora, but she watched Penny die right in front of her.”

Ruby relived it, suddenly and vividly. The backlight fading from her eyes.

“Then she watched her sister lose her arm,”

The scream echoed in the forest,

“and then she watched Pyrrha die.”

Her croaking and gasping. The smell of cooked flesh, then ash. And the image reflected in gleeful, evil pupils. An evil smile.

“So,” Ren concluded, “I think you’re trying to give her more responsibility than she can carry right now.”

That he uttered these things without flinching proved a lifestyle of mindfulness. He was not afraid of Truth and its associated pains. He held them dear.

Nora hugged herself and teared up. “Okay, Ren, look- _Jaune_ is _Obviously_ too _depressed_!”

“Keep your voice down,” Ren reminded her.

Nora’s lip trembled. “I wish Pyrrha was here.”

She covered her face, ashamed, crying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Ren frowned at her, but admitted, “We all wish Pyrrha was here.”

They walked for a long time in silence.

 

Until Jaune looked down to Ruby and whispered, “Do you think they’re right?”

Ruby hiked her pack higher on her little back. She’d tried to keep everyone’s spirits up. But what was there to tell them? What was the point? There was a Huntsman Academy in Mistral. They had to graduate. They had to be Huntsmen, or they would be Nothing.

Tone tempered by trauma, she asserted, “We can do this, Jaune. We _have_ to do this.”

“And when we get to Mistral… Then what? It can be destroyed, too. Just like Vale.”

Ruby stopped.

And so did everyone else.

She cried. Fists balled and shaking, she whispered, “I don’t know Jaune.”

She turned to Ren and Nora. Green and Pink blobs through her tears.

She shouted, “We can’t give up! We have to keep trying!”

 

Silence. Real silence. The forest had quieted.

Meaning danger.

Jaune noticed it first, head perking up. He drew _Crocea Mors_ from his hip, and the team circled up.

Nora drew her warhammer from her back. Ren, his dual SMGs. Ruby swung _Crescent_ from its holster and gripped it like a shotgun at low ready.

The barrel slid loose to full deployment, and the scythe swung into position and clicked.

She twirled it by the staff and caught it over her shoulders, held as if crucified. Her sorrows transmuted to rage, shaking her body, and light shimmered on _Crescent’s_ trembling blade.

“Find it,” Ruby ordered. “And kill it.”

Ren murmured, “We only have to so much ammo, Ruby. We can’t fight every-”

“Then we’ll kill them with our hands.”

Tough talk from a little girl. But her aura sparked on her finger tips as she hissed.

The same power shone in everyone’s eyes, and where their hands gripped their weapons.

“I don’t feel any Grimm this way,” Nora whispered.

Jaune pointed. “Something’s moving down the trail.”

“Wedge,” Ruby ordered.

The team reformed. Nora hustled to grenadier position and switched her warhammer to its launcher configuration.

Ruby planted her scythe blade as a monopod and laid back to find a target for her sniper-scythe.

Ren keened his eyes. “That’s not something moving on the trail,” he noted. “That’s… The trail, moving.”

Everyone blinked at the impossible.

The ground crawled away, shifting rocks as it moved. And as the trail extended, its destination came nearer, so that here and there seemed to be trading places.

Reality did not like this super-positioning.

The ground cracked, three jagged lines splitting the team onto islands. And before Ruby could shout an order, the cracks spread like lightning. The world shattered, the path dissolved beneath Ruby’s feet, and her stomach lurched as on a rollercoaster.

She shrieked and fell into darkness, cradled in her red cape.

Training took over. She’d jumped from many cliffs and aircraft. She gripped her cape and made a wing, rolling to face to the ground. But there was only blackness, and wind rushing past her ears.

Focusing her soul, she flexed her semblance and slowed her descent, all laws of inertia bending to suit her. Rose petals spawned from the entropic output, clouding around her as she slowly drifted into darkness.

She saw ground, dark and rising to meet her, and she hit her brakes hard. She thumped it, left a dent, felt the impact disperse across her aural shield. But the feeling was only that, a pressure.

The ground didn’t have a temperature, nor a texture.

She rose to her knees, then her feet, and dusted her combat skirt. She couldn’t feel the fabric. Rubbing her fingers yielded only a tingling sensation. She pushed her fingers to her neck, but didn’t find her pulse.

She was dead, or hallucinating.

She was afraid.

 

She’d landed exactly where she fell from.

The same trail.

The same trees.

Footprints where her friends had stood.

Though the world was soft and black. Colors blunted. The air tasted stale and everything looked like a fuzzy copy of itself.

“Alright, Ruby. Get it together. Find the team, find the trail, get to Mistral. Or, Shion.”

She shouted, “I’m alive!”

No echo. No answer.

“Guys?”

Her shout sounded hollow. But it carried enough to draw attention.

A figure appeared in the trees, upright and graceful. Silver hair billowed like a cape.

Ruby drew back her foot and readied _Crescent_.

“Who goes there?!” Her little voice cracked.

The man smirked. His eyes glowed golden. She’d seen that before. Pyrrha burning, reflected in Cinder’s pupils. And evil smile.

Ruby’s face twitched with fear and fury. “I said-!”

The man emerged from the woods.

He had a wing. Only one, but massive like an angel’s, and black.

And on his hip rode a blade darker than black.

_Odachi_ design. Two, maybe two-point-five meters. Three including arm length.

Mobility and Close-Quarters were her best option.

He was watching her, eyes dancing and analyzing in kind.

But she was being too hasty. This wasn’t a Grimm. “H-Hey!” she shouted. “Who are you?”

His smirk broadened into a smile. And he very slowly enunciated, “I’m looking for a man named Cloud.” His voice rumbled, hypnotic and beautiful.

He stopped at ten meters. If he was a Huntsman, he could close seven and strike in a single leap.

“Never met him.” Ruby back-stepped to eleven, and kept her stance. The man didn’t follow.

She checked her shoulders for foes, hoped for friends. She shouted, “Nora! Jaune!”

The One-Winged swordsman asked, “Are you lost?”

“I’m fine!”

She shivered. This was bad. Evil intent filled the air. Ruby knew this sensation. She’d felt it every day that Cinder lived in the dorms with her, every day that they attended classes together. She’d ignored it. Never again.

“Go away! What do you want?!”

The swordsman’s eyes moved to _Crescent_. “Well, now… That’s an interesting weapon. Are you a warrior?”

His hand moved to the hilt on his own weapon. Ruby read “Masamune” engraved upon the grip. She swallowed. Adrenaline coursed her veins. Her tendons ached.

“BACK OFF! I’m a Huntress! I don’t know you, Stranger, but if you’re looking for a fight-“

“I am.”


	3. Shion

Jaune thumped sand, landing so hard his aura popped.

His pocket rumbled. A soft, robotic voice announced, “Warning. Aura shock. Please refrain from strenuous-” He slapped his scroll, acknowledging and ignoring the training program.

He had to get up. He had to keep moving. He’d always been the weakest link, and that meant The Team was depending on him to not break. He had to prove that he belonged among Huntsmen, that he wasn’t just a lucky cheater with a sad story.

He found his feet, and felt the tingle crossing his skin, shield reforming. It pressurized, and his ears bubbled. He stretched his jaw, trying to fix the pressure.

And then he stopped to contemplate the desert.

The nearest landmark was a woman with blue hair, staring at him. Just beyond her, a big disco ball ate everything. He stared at it, not comprehending.

The woman stared at him, just as dumbly.

The desert poured into the disco ball, like water down a drain. The horizon was moving towards him. When it reached the woman, terror and impetus shoved him into action.

“Hey! HEY! YOU HAVE TO MOVE!”

He charged, sheathing _Crocea Mors_ and sprinting thoughtlessly into the danger. He grabbed the stranger around her waist, hefted her into a fireman carry, and turned to run.

Eternity nipped at his heel, and a piece of his shoe crossed that threshold forever.

The sand slipped from under him, and he leaped away, aura burning through his legs and granting superhuman strength.

He didn’t want to die.

The desert was vanishing behind him. And around him, strange eddies of light warped until it seemed other places were overlapping here. Cities. Islands. Streets at midnight. Farms. Living rooms. Pure Darkness. Yellow eyes blinking to life and turning his way.

“What are you doing?” The woman on his shoulders hit him. “Stop running!”

He stopped. “I don’t know! How do we get out of here?”

He turned on a heel, looking for something familiar. These orbs were other places, and he REALLY wanted to be somewhere else. He was willing to grasp at intuition.

The Woman wiped her eyes clean, looked at a place, then another. “Do you recognize any of these?”

She looked behind them. Jaune followed. The sand-slide was catching up.

“Nevermind, keep running!” she shouted.

He did. And a place caught his eye.

A trail on a hill. Rocks stacked atop each other. On the highest, a child had carved the Emblem of Vale.

He saw it in color. Not dim and dreary like the muted world around him, but real and stimulating. Beyond that mirror-thin barrier, the trees swayed in wind.

Jaune leaped, and passed into Remnant.

 

They landed rough, skidding on patchy grass. Jaune ate dirt, and Aqua sprawled out like a snow angel, facing the sky. The door to darkness closed behind them, entropy zipping it shut.

And for a long time, they panted, and listened to a calm breeze blowing in the trees.

 

Aqua felt her heart beat. She saw a blue sky, bright with daylight, and squinted her eyes shut. And when oxygen stung her lungs, she understood that she was free. That this was real.

She smiled and breathed deeply. Dirt. Grass. Oak.

She couldn’t hold it. Her air burst as laughter.

Jaune groaned and pushed up from the ground. “You okay?”

Aqua held a thumb up.

Jaune nodded, took off his shoe, and dumped sand from it.

Aqua sat up and shook grains from her hair. She rolled her bare shoulders, stretching her muscles for the first time in… King Mickey had said ten years. But how long ago was that?

A banner waved beside her, pinned atop a small rock shrine at the cliff’s edge. A gentle breeze made it display to the world below.

The banner’s emblem: two axe-blades crossed, olive branches behind.

This symbol had stood out to her rescuer.

She looked at him. In the darkness, she’d seen Ventus. In the light, she saw a different blonde kid with spiky hair. She rubbed her eyes, shielding them from sunlight, then blinked at him.

“Jaune,” he said.

“Huh?”

“Is my name.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “Aqua.”

“A what?”

“Aqua. Is my name.”

“Oh. Right.”

Jaune lifted his other shoe to empty it.

Aqua tilted her head and read “Left,” written under the sole.

She raised an eyebrow. “Get ‘em mixed up?”

Jaune looked at his shoe, then blushed. “Oh. Uh. No. Not anymore. Hey, you didn’t happen to see anybody else, did you? In that… Place?”

He gestured where the portal used to be. Then, remembering himself, did a hopping spin on one leg, to take in his surroundings. Looking ridiculous. He put his shoe back on.

Aqua shook her head. “Sorry. And you’re not the only person looking for your friends.”

“Okay. Well, we got separated, so…” he took another look at his surroundings. “Oh. I know where Shion is from here.”

“One of your friends?”

Jaune pointed. “It’s a settlement down this hiking trail. What city you from?”

Aqua stood. Dizziness caught her. Jaune offered a hand for stability, but she refused. There was a lot going on to deal with. She didn’t feel like breaking bad news about his friends, that _separated_ was an understatement.

She breathed, enjoyed the sensation.

Then her stomach growled, empty, and she did not enjoy the sensation.

“Hungry?” Jaune reached over his shoulder and waved his hand around behind his back. “I’ve got some jerky strips in my… My, uh…”

He looked over his shoulder. “Oh, great. Lost my pack.”

His stomach rumbled.

“Well then,” Aqua giggled. “Nice to meet you, Jaune. Let’s go find food.”

 

He led them down the hill, forest canopy as their vista.

Aqua gathered her thoughts- her feelings. A moment ago, she’d been ready to die. Now she felt like she’d missed the train; A little embarrassed that she couldn’t die properly- that she’d given up- that she’d been caught in the act.

She was better than this.

She brushed a tear from her cheek and looked ahead. Jaune was alert, head on a swivel, walking tall. This boy was a new friend from a new world. So it was time to pick his brain.

Hi? They’d already covered that.

Who are you? Jaune.

Sorry about your friends, they’re probably dead? Bad topic.

The trail reached the hill’s bottom, and levelled out into forest.

Aqua finally asked, “Did you pick a world at random?”

Jaune gave her a glance, then kept alert as he talked. “Did I what?”

“When we were on Tatooine. You jumped into a portal to here. Do you know what world this is?”

He looked at her like she was an idiot. “Remnant. Where else would we be?”

“Tatooine,” she didn’t say.

Some people didn’t’ want to know about the big universe. She didn’t have the enthusiasm to explain it.

“Almost Winter,” Jaune noted. “Fall was kinda rough. Hey, what city are you from?”

He glanced her up and down, and gestured to her leotard. “Not Atlas, I’m guessing.”

Aqua folded her arms across her chest. “How should I take that?”

“Well… It’s cold there.”

The trail ended abruptly, overgrown by brush. Jaune stopped and stared at it. “Uh oh.”

He crouched, and noted with a gesture the trodden dirt beneath the flora. “Huh. Recent. I guess we’re hacking through.”

He looked up at Aqua, then paused and stared.

She asked, “What?”

“You gotta keep a lookout, you know. We don’t want anything to catch us off guard out here.”

“Anything like what?”

She turned to check their surroundings, and caught motion behind them. A pool of shadow slithered to the middle of the road. Two eyes blinked to life, then twenty more, and their owners climbed into three dimensions.

Jaune drew his sword. “Grimm!”

“Heartless!”

Jaune put himself in front of Aqua. “Get behind me. I’m a Huntsman!”

Aqua summoned her keyblade and charged. “You get behind _me_! I’ve got a keyblade!”

“A what? Oh, I guess that’s what I’d call that.”

The monsters were still forming, first claws extending from their bodies. Novashadows, with red emblems across their chests. Aqua surged and swiped three with a singular blow. Jaune shouted a warcry and charged into ten more, absorbing hits with shield and armor.

Aqua danced with three and found them lacking. Three strikes, three kills. She glanced to Jaune.

He had one climbing on his back. He pulled it off and used it as a club, forgetting the sword in his hand.

She remembered a time that Terra fought that way. Before he got good.

At the battle’s end, Aqua cringed and watched Jaune shield-bash the last monster to death. For a swordsman, he lacked even the basic concepts of elegance.

Jaune stood and panted, then flashed a smile at Aqua. “Wow. Those were young ones. Real young. Didn’t even have bones.”

He walked to the brush, and began chopping their way through. “You coming?”

Aqua nodded. She glanced across the forest first, checking for more. Jaune’s words tumbled through her mind. Bones. Bones?

She stepped into the brush and followed him. “Heartless don’t grow bones for years.”

“Huh? Yeah, well Grimm don’t die of old age. Some have been around for _hundreds_ of years. And those are just the ones we know about.”

Chop.

Aqua raised an eyebrow. “You study them?”

Chop. Jaune puffed out his chest. “Oh, they teach you that kind of thing at Huntsman Academies. I’m a student at Beacon.” Chop. He deflated a little. “Was. I _was_ a student at Beacon. On my way to Haven, now.” Chop. “In Mistral.” Chop.

Aqua shrugged. The names didn’t mean anything to her. She dispelled her Keyblade.

Jaune saw the shimmering, and stopped to admire the weapon as it vanished. “Whoa. High tech.”

“Magic,” she corrected.

“Right. Okay.” He rolled his eyes. Chop.

Aqua noted a scratch on her elbow. When she’d slid on the dirt. She mumbled, “Cure,” and watched her skin seal.

“Huh?” Jaune asked.

“Nothing.”

He shrugged. Chop.

Aqua’s mind caught up with a problem. “ _Grimm_ … Have been a problem for… _Hundreds_ of years?”

Jaune stopped and turned to her. “Are you serious right now? You didn’t know that?”

She had to tell him eventually, about other worlds- That she was a long way from home. She asked, “How long have Grimm been around?”

“Since… Forever?” Jaune turned back to his task. Chop.

Aqua held her chin and thought. Heartless weren’t very common outside of The End. Weren’t supposed to be. Not until recently. The emblems on the Novashadows… They were artificial. But the emblems were all identical, not hand made by some alchemist in a shed. Was someone mass producing Heartless?

She asked, “And, Jaune, you’ve never seen a Keyblade before?”

Chop. “No. I mean, it looks cool.” Chop. “Everybody’s got a unique weapon, right?”

Aqua looked at Jaune’s short-sword.

“Except me,” Jaune sighed.

Aqua blurted, “How do you _survive_?!”

Jaune stopped chopping. But he didn’t face her. His tone dropped. “I guess you’re not from Vale,” he said. “How do we survive? We fight.”

CHOP.

“We fight, and we never stop fighting.”

Aqua swallowed. She wiped sweat from her brow. It was chilly here, but not too chilly to sweat on a hike. Jaune was strange, she still believed. But not everyone could swing a sword when the time came.

“I can’t wait to meet the locals,” she answered.

Beyond the brush, someone asked, “What was that? Contact! CONTACT!”

Jaune cupped his hands. “Human! We’re HUMAN!”

“Come out!”

Jaune surged through the brush. Aqua followed.

They’d found Shion.

The settlement smoked. Fires had long since run their course.

Three men with rifles waited for them. None wore uniforms.

Jaune sheathed his sword and gripped his head. “Oh, no. What happened here?”

One of the men-at-arms gestured into the forest. “I don’t know. Random people keep wandering out of the woods. And every time they do, we get another wave of Grimm. We already had a whole tribe of bandits yesterday. Then the swarm. Now these stragglers. That was our only Huntsman.”

He pointed, to a Huntsman propped against a ruined wall. Ragged breathing. A medic kept pressure on his chest wound. Despite this, blood poured down him into the dirt.

The medic, “Do we have anymore gauze?!”

Jaune pointed at the huntsman. “Hey. You’re Ruby’s Uncle!”

The huntsman, pale and weak, shook his head. “Not for long,” he smirked.

Jaune ran to his side. Aqua followed.

“Oh, this is bad,” Jaune strained.

The pain on his face was too familiar for Aqua. She wished someone stronger had come to save her friends.

Jaune didn’t believe in Magic. Likely, no one here did. And maybe using it would get her almost burned at the stake again.

The medic hit Jaune. “Gauze! Coagulant! Do you have any?!”

“I lost my pack. It’s- No. Mister Branwen, you’re gonna be okay, right?”

“Not if we can’t stop this bleeding!”

“This is nothin’-“ Branwen mumbled. “At least I’m not this guy.”

He gestured down the wall, where the second-to-last huntsman sat dead, staring blankly at his boots. If Aqua didn’t act, Qrow would soon join him. The wound gushed, even under pressure.

Jaune grabbed Branwen’s lapels. “You can’t die! Ruby’s about to get here with-“

Aqua reached out her hand and intoned, “Curaga.”

Emerald energies wrapped his wounds and wiped away his blood. Bones regrew, sinew spun, muscles and skin knit into place. The medic removed his hands- looked awestruck at a man remade.

And Branwen breathed easily. He looked down and poked his healed chest. “Huh,” he grunted.

Everyone turned to Aqua, and gaped.


	4. The Maiden

The first and last building in Shion was an Inn.

The innkeeper, a dog faunus, emerged from the back room with a platter of roast chicken.

Aqua’s stomach growled. She licked her lips.

“Oh, nice!” Jaune exclaimed.

The Innkeeper set the meal before them, and laid out porcelain and silver for them to eat from. These plates were the most civilized furnishings in the room.

Evening rays filtered in through the ceiling rafters.

Jaune unfolded his napkin into his lap.

Aqua forgot the importance of custom and quickly dug in with fork and knife.

She saw Jaune eat a wing with his hands, and ditched her silverware entirely.

She ate bird like pig.

So she didn’t notice as the whole town’s population trickled in to watch her.

“This is really delicious,” Jaune said through a mouthful.

Aqua nodded her agreement and devoured thigh. Her fingers shook tremendously.

The Inkeeper stood by as a waiter.

Aqua glanced at him, gulped her food, and said, “Thank you so much, Sir. I was starving.”

He bowed. Reaaaaally bowed. The dog ears atop his head flattened in submission.

Still licking her fingers, Aqua glanced to Jaune.

He was eating, hungrily. But he was looking at her more than his food. She noticed the crowd forming around the table. _Everyone_ was looking at her, awed.

A quick survey told her she was the prettiest girl in the town. But not by this much. She wasn’t even the best dressed.

In the Inn’s corner, a young woman in a wheelchair hid herself beneath a white shawl. But while her face was concealed, the scar tissue along her chin and throat and chest were not. And the red kimono she wore, its gold filigree, sparkled in the Inn’s sparse sunlight.

Her attendant appeared to be a boy. But that was an illusion. Aqua blinked through several magical lenses. She couldn’t break the illusion. She had more pressing concerns.

More people piling into the room.

More people staring at her.

Someone nudged the Innkeep and asked for a beer, and was politely turned down. “Haven’t you heard? I have an important guest.”

Aqua stared at the interaction.

The innkeeper asked, “May I fetch you anything else, Miss Aqua?”

Cautious now, she set down her chicken leg and sucked the fat from her fingers.

“Um…” she looked at everyone.

Everyone looked at her.

Another man entered. Branwen. The Huntsman whose life she’d saved. He pushed to the front of the crowd and ordered, “Don’t crowd her. She’s eating.”

Showing deference, the crowd stepped back.

Now that he was standing, Branwen looked lively. Though a bit like an animal, for a man. Unshaven, unkempt, uncouth. He wore a crucifix on his necklace, but off-kilter, like his resting frown.

He pulled out a chair and mounted from behind as if it had a saddle. He nodded to the Innkeep. “Rufus. I’ll pay for her.”

The Inkeeper shook his head. “No need. It will be on the house.”

Branwen nodded to Aqua. “Name’s Qrow. And if you ever need anything, you can use it.”

Aqua hesitated. She knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So instead of “Why?” she said, “That’s… Very generous of you. I was only trying to help.”

Rufus murmured, “Just like in the stories.”

Aqua watched him, the incredulous expression, like she was a saint stepping forth from stained glass. She wiped her hands on her napkin. “Qrow, why is everyone staring at me?”

He stared at her. “Seriously?”

Jaune, through food, mumbled, “Earlier, she asked me what Grimm are. And… Hey.” He turned to Qrow. “How did you get here?”

“I’ve got legs,” Qrow grunted, still staring at Aqua.

“Yeah, but I thought you were staying with Tai and Yang at the cabin.”

“Best laid plans.” Qrow nodded upwards, to Aqua. “Where are you from?”

She was caught off guard. She’d been inspecting these two. Jaune and Qrow didn’t seem star struck. They were intrigued, maybe impressed. But something set them apart from the rest of the crowd. By their zealous gazes, she realized that the commoners were investing hope in her.

And that Jaune was not.

To Qrow, she was a curiosity. He frowned and chewed the inside of his cheek, waiting for her to answer.

“W-where am I from?”

“Yeah,” Qrow asserted.

“She wouldn’t tell me, either,” Jaune answered. “I figured she’s not from Atlas.”

“Obviously,” Qrow grumbled.

She didn’t like this line of questioning. There was probably a wrong place to be from.

“And her shoes are weird,” Jaune said. “No offense,” he amended.

Aqua looked at her boots. Metal rims, pointed toes, steel wing-blades to protect her from bolos. These were high-fashion most places she went.

“Yeah,” Qrow sighed. “Where’d you find her?”

Jaune stopped eating- pulled a pensive face. “Kinda hard to explain,” he decided.

“Let me try,” Qrow offered. “You were walking on the trail when something weird happened. Then you were in a black desert. You found a floating ball with a piece of Remnant inside it, and when you touched the ball, you were back here. And then Grimm attacked.”

Qrow broke eye contact with Aqua, and looked to Jaune for confirmation.

“Yeah.” Jaune nodded. “How’d you know?”

“That’s about the fifth time I’ve heard that story today. And it happened to me, too.” He looked back to Aqua. “So where are you from?”

“Hang on,” she protested. “I’m getting really uncomfortable. Why is everyone staring at me?”

Qrow looked at the crowd, watched them watch her, then shrugged. “Well… How do I put this…?”

He put his feet on the table, leaned his chair back on its hind legs, and pulled a flask from his jacket. Thinking, staring at the roof, he took a swig.

As he did, a stranger leaned out of the crowd and asked, “Miss Aqua… Are you… Are you a Maiden?”

All motion stopped.

Adrenaline snapped through Aqua’s spine. She was completely surrounded. There was no escaping without a fight.

She said, “Uhhhhh… **_Excuse_** me?!”

Jaune, through food, mumbled, “Phrasing!”

Rufus shouted, “Get him out of here! Idiot!”

The crowd roughly removed the fool.

Aqua breathed. Her heart thrummed.

Qrow swallowed his liquor and sighed.

Aqua nervously scooted her chair back from the table. “W-well, this has been lovely.”

She stood from her chair, but Qrow waved a hand dismissively, for her to stop. “He means the story of the Four Maidens. You heard it?”

Aqua shook her head.

“It’s a fairy tale,” Qrow explained.

“O-okay. Listen, everyone. Have you never seen magic before?”

“No. They haven’t,” Qrow said. “Hear me out. And keep eating. You’re shaking.”

Her hands trembled, even as she gripped the chair. She was starving. She nodded, then cautiously sat and resumed, while Qrow told the story.

“So there was an old hermit. And one day he finds a young woman meditating in his yard. He shouts at her from the window, but she convinces him to meditate as well. To reflect on things. That’s the Winter Maiden.”

“You’re not telling this right at all,” Jaune interrupted.

Qrow ignored him. “So then another woman shows up. This is Spring. She starts tending to the hermit’s garden. He watches all this from the window. Well then Summer shows up and convinces him to come outside. And finally Fall shows up, prepares a nice meal, and helps the hermit appreciate all that he has.”

All the talking got him thirsty. Qrow took another swig from his flask.

“The hermit gave them all magic powers,” Jaune finished, “Because they were so nice. He figured they’d use it to help people even more.”

Qrow swallowed and wiped his mouth. “And then these four powers carried on across generations. Or so the story goes.”

Aqua could tell that he believed it.

Qrow thumbed at the door. “So what that idiot meant to ask is, are you going to save us? Or are you just another bastard with power?”

He scratched his unshaved chin. The sound was like sandpaper.

Aqua didn’t want to answer. They had a problem with heartless here. They’d _had_ a problem with heartless, since time immemorial. So the problem was with the very heart of their world.

And she had a keyblade.

So she was honor bound to save them. No matter how badly she wanted to check on Ventus. No matter how badly she wanted to storm the gates at Radiant Gardens. To revisit all that remained.

She belonged here, on this world just outside the darkness. She had a chance to save this place from annihilation. And she had to trust that someone else was saving all that she cared about.

She didn’t want to be here.

She took another bite of chicken and chewed instead of answering.

But Qrow was a very patient, very persistent man. He waited, glaring at her more like a hawk.

She eventually swallowed and asked, “You think I’m from a fairy tale?”

Qrow grinned, and she recognized delight. He’d seen through her evasion.

“I’m living proof you’re from a fairy tale. And I don’t know about the rest of you…” He nodded to Rufus, to the crowd, to Jaune, “But I do feel a certain tingling in the air.”

Aqua felt it, too. She wasn’t’ the only mage in the room. Her senses keened, and she looked again into the corner, to the woman in the white shawl. But there was no reason to expose her.

Aqua looked back to her food. “I… Don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. But as long as I’m here, we’re in this together. Whatever… _This_ is. It seems you have a problem with Heartless.”

Jaune raised an eyebrow. “You keep calling them that.”

Qrow nodded. “ _Heartless_. Yeah. And that’s not our only problem.”

Jaune pulled a tablet from his pocket and set it on the table. “Oh, hey. In case we get separated, what’s your number?”

Aqua looked at the tablet. “My… Number?”

“You know, so I can call your scroll?”

“My what?”

Qrow’s grin became a smile. And he accused, “You’re not from Remnant, are you?”

Everyone looked at Qrow.

He didn’t flinch. He kept his glare on Aqua, who nervously swallowed and looked down into her food.

Rufus scoffed, “That’s crazy talk, Branwen.”

“Maybe.” Qrow pushed out his chair and stood. “Jaune, we’ve been here for an hour. Where’s the rest of your team? Where’s Ruby?”

Jaune swallowed. “We got separated. About five hours ago. When, uh… Well, you know. I figured we were all trying to get here. And we knew we were close. So I think we should wait here till tomorrow. Then head out and look for them.”

“Good plan. You stay here and protect the town. I’m heading out to see if I can ride one of those portals.”

“Not a good idea,” Aqua warned.

Qrow waited for an explanation.

Aqua looked at Jaune apologetically. She didn’t like bearing bad news. “You can’t map that place. And… About your friends…”

He squared his shoulders to her. “Did you see them?”

She shook her head. “No. I… For you to find your way back here…” She licked her lips. “Jaune, you got _really_ lucky.”

“So they’re still stuck there,” Qrow asked.

“No. More likely…” She bit her lower lip. She didn’t’ want say anything too negative, nor give false hope. The truth was… “There are… _A lot_ of other worlds. ”

In the corner, the woman in the white shawl made a gesture. Her attendant wheeled them out. Aqua resisted the urge to watch them. She wondered what a mage did in a world like this, aside from hide.

Qrow put his hands on the table. Up close, and under his attention, she understood him a lot better. Qrow had the nicest clothing in the room. Everyone called him Huntsman. So he had status in society.

And yet he looked like a beast wearing a man’s pelt. He’d eschewed city life for Nature’s virtues. This man was ready to enter the darkness and slay monsters.

“Aqua,” he said. “I appreciate you saving my life.”

She nodded. “You’re welcome.”

“And I would further appreciate…” Qrow strained, “If you would help me find my niece.”


	5. We Share the Same Sky

Jaune pointed. “Shion is named after these flowers.”

Purple petals. Yellow stamen. Thousands of them.

Aqua and Qrow followed him towards sunset, cutting a field of these beautiful little plants. The sun vanished, and Qrow set down a table and chair.

“Thank you,” Aqua nodded.

“Thank Rufus. It’s his stuff.” He gestured across the field, to the Inn.

“It’s kinda weird that an Innkeep has an art studio,” Jaune said.

Aqua laid out her drawing pad. “We’ve all got our hobbies. And mine… Is stargazing.”

She looked up. The first few pinpricks of light were visible.

Qrow popped a squat and kept his eyes on the tree line.

Jaune stood beside Aqua and looked up. She glanced at him, at the flower in his hand, then back to the sky.

“So how do you start?” he asked. “There are so many of them.”

“Well… If I recognize any constellations at a glance, then I’ll start there. But I probably won’t.”

“I could help with that,” Qrow grumbled.

“Not likely. Your world moved.”

Jaune recoiled. “What?”

“You’ll see.”

The sky hued to black. Qrow looked up and mumbled, “That’s disconcerting.”

“So…” Jaune asked.

Aqua brushed a hair aside and put pencil to paper. “So. Second star on the right, and straight on ‘till morning.”

In the darkness, she noticed Jaune and Qrow’s eyes glowing. Subtle, but it set them apart from the common people.

Aqua tilted her chin to Jaune. “You were telling me about the flowers?”

“Oh. Yeah. I didn’t wanna distract you.”

“I can kind of listen.”

Glowbugs leaped from the flowers and illuminated the clearing.

Jaune looked into his hand. “The flowers… The name means, ‘I won’t forget you.’”

He looked sad.

Qrow looked at him, then Aqua, and asked, “So now that the secret’s up… You’re from another world. What’s it like there, without Grimm?”

She didn’t want to pour her heart out. The Land of Departure- Castle Oblivion- no longer served as a home. Now its only value was as a secret. Even thinking about the truth felt like betraying it.

So she answered a different question. “That dark place that Jaune rescued me from? I was trapped there for a long time. Your world is falling into that darkness. Enough for Jaune to slip through and bring me back.”

She leaned back from her constellation sketch. This one did look familiar. She knew her trigonometry tables, but needed to write them out anyway.

Jaune peered over her shoulder and commented, “This looks really advanced. You sure know a lot.”

“I grew up in a castle, with a lot of time to study.” She shut her eyes and silently scolded herself for letting the castle slip through her lips.

Qrow turned away from the tree line. “Castle? You royalty?”

She pointed into the sky.

“See those three bright stars? They make an equilateral triangle. That one closest to the nebula is Olympus Coliseum. That over there is Enchanted Dominion. And there’s... Radiant Gardens.”

Terra was somewhere on that world.

“Which puts us…” She put her head down and scribbled out a star lane map. “Right where I thought.”

“And that helps us… How?” Qrow asked.

“Well… I know where Remnant is. And I have a pretty good idea about where it was. Or where it wasn’t at least. I know Remnant moved a long way to get here. Which really narrows what could have moved it. I think I know what ritual sent your world here.”

“Ritual?” Jaune asked.

It wasn’t a pleasant topic. Aqua shook her head. “We’re out here to make a map to your teammates. I can figure out where they’re likely to turn up. That will narrow down our search.”

A light turned on nearby. They all turned to the Inn, where Rufus had lit a lamp and set up an easel.

Aqua turned back to her drawings. “My turn to ask questions. So how do you two kill Heartless if you don’t have Keyblades or magic?”

“You watched me,” Jaune answered.

“I do it like him, but better,” Qrow agreed.

“That explains why yours have bones. Heartless can’t be killed with conventional weapons. They just return to the darkness, and learn, and reform.”

“Guess we’ll have to keep killing them,” Jaune said.

“That’s called job security,” Qrow quipped.

Aqua frowned at his back. Then asked, “Jaune, do you remember the Novashadows we fought on the way here? They had red emblems on their chests.”

“Oh. Yeah?”

“Is that normal?”

“Grimm always have spirals on their bones.”

“Spirals or symbols? Those Novashadows had emblems on them. Like… Manufacturers marks.”

“I didn’t notice. I wasn’t paying much attention.”

Aqua frowned again.

“Sorry,” Jaune shrugged.

She shook her head. Ventus had been like this. Maybe If Master Eraqus had scolded him more, he’d be standing here beside her. She took a breath. Master Eraqus was gone. Now Master Aqua had to step up.

She steeled her voice. “Jaune, next time you’re covering my back, I want you to do it right.” She looked up from her papers, to check his reaction. She’d never given someone instructions before.

Oh. Yes she had. Terra. And that had ended their friendship. She swallowed, wondered if she’d pushed him away again.

Jaune nodded, embarrassed. “Yeah. I will.”

Aqua took another breath, resumed drawing. “Mister Branwen?”

“Qrow,” he corrected. “And I think it’s my turn to ask questions. You said Ritual. Did someone do this to us?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“Can you give me any details?”

“Like what?”

“Like a name.”

She looked at Qrow’s back. He kept guard, staring into the darkness. The way Terra used to. She looked at Jaune, and could imagine Ventus in his place, twirling a dandelion in his fingers and finding meaning in the flower.

“Well, every world has a Heart, just like a person. And every Heart is protected by a lock. Keyblades can manipulate those locks safely. But if you don’t have a Keyblade, and you really want access to the Heart of a world...”

Qrow finished, “You smash the lock.”

“Right. So somebody got murdered. That’s for sure. Someone that everybody cared about.”

“And this ritual,” Qrow asked. “Does it happen on top of a tower?”

No. But what an oddly specific question to ask. Aqua looked at Qrow again. Then at Jaune, where she read that he had a very precise idea in his mind about the event in question.

Jaune asked, “Someone killed-“

He licked his lips, spent a long time staring at the flower. “Someone destroyed Vale, for _What_ exactly?”

Aqua set down her pencil. “I don’t know. But if they accessed the heart of the world, they would have a lot of power. For a little while anyway. Before they turned it to darkness. But that would have happened by now. Your world is broken, but the heart hasn’t fallen. So I don’t know.”

Jaune was pacing angrily. “But that person is Evil, right? There’s no question?”

In a cynical tone, Qrow grumbled, “That would make things simple and clean.”

Aqua shied, “Evil… Is a strong label, Jaune. Are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to hate someone?”

Jaune looked up from his flower. “And what’s wrong with that? Hating someone who’s Evil?”

Aqua picked up her pencil and resumed drawing. And from memory, she recited, “If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

“During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.”

Qrow cast a smirk. “You’ve got a way with words, Aqua.”

“It’s from a book. I didn’t write it.”

She didn’t believe it, either. She used to. But now, her heart sided with Jaune. Xehanort was a force of Evil, not a person. She could show him no love. Not like she had for her friends.

But could she bring herself to hate her enemies? For a moment, she let her heart tell her. Who had she met that she could truly hate?

Master Eraqus, who she’d trusted to raise her. Who she’d trusted to raise her friends.

Her hands tensed and made jagged lines among those guided by smoother emotions.

And her hate, now released, grew.

She hated Ventus, for his disobedience.

She hated Terra, for his steady and premeditated descent into darkness. She remembered their last friendly meeting, at Cinderella’s ball. She wanted to reach out and stop him from leaving. She wanted to reach out and strike him.

She hated herself for letting everything that mattered slip away.

The pencil tip snapped. Aqua sighed and reached for the sharpener.

Qrow grumbled, “Good and evil aren’t useful terms, Jaune. Go with whatever keeps you going. Protect your family and friends.”

Aqua couldn’t spend her whole night on her problems. She had to focus. Glancing over to Jaune, she noticed that he’d balled his fists. In his hatred, he’d forgotten the flower in his grip. His hand relaxed, and he looked at the destruction he’d caused.

He caught her watching him. “Hey, Aqua? How long were you in that place I rescued you from?”

How long, indeed? _Ten, years_. She still couldn’t believe it. “Too long.”

“And what kept you going?”

She placed a hand on her Wayfinder, and remembered long moments in the darkness, when she would clutch this charm and count the passage of time in heartbeats.

Terra.

Ventus.

626.

Zack.

Levity tickled her dimples. She owed Zack a date. A celebration. But she couldn’t feel his heart anymore. That had faded at some point. And now she could only wonder. Had he forgotten her? Her smile faded.

To Jaune, she said, “My friends are still fighting. They’re depending on me.”

Jaune nodded. “You remind me of someone,” he grinned.

“Yeah,” she said. “You too.”

Aqua leaned back from her work. “There. I can almost guarantee anyone who fell off of Remnant will pass through Olympus Coliseum. _IF_ they survive.”

“They did,” Qrow and Jaune said in unison.

“Good,” Aqua nodded. “I can take us there on my glider after I’ve slept.”

 

Footsteps. They turned to see Rufus carrying a tray to them. He had a canvas tucked under his arm.

“You’ve all had a long day! Mister Branwen, you almost died, remember? And Miss Aqua, I’ve made a room for you.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Rufus set the tray down and distributed tea.

“I’ll stay up till about one,” Qrow offered. “Jaune, you take over after that. I’ll catch shut-eye ‘till you and Aqua head out.”

Rufus turned to Aqua. “Are you… Leaving?”

Aqua huddled to her tea and blew on it. “There are more Huntsmen trapped in the darkness. We’re going to see if we can bring them back. Though… We also need to think about stopping this world from falling into The End.”

Qrow shook his head. “You get four huntsmen to agree on something, it gets done. Bring that team back and they’ll help you save Remnant.”

Rufus smiled. “Oh, bless you, Miss Aqua! There aren’t many people who stop to help a struggling town.”

“He’s not wrong,” Qrow whispered to his tea.

Aqua admitted, “Something else is bothering me. Remnant is leaning into The End. I don’t understand why.”

Jaune shrugged. “Well, someone broke our magic heart lock or something, right?”

Aqua shook her head. “This world’s Heart hasn’t fallen to darkness. So… What’s pulling us in? Who’s manufacturing Heartless? Why did someone try to reach the heart of the world?”

Rufus asked, “Could it have something to do with the large chains in the sky?”

Everyone looked at him.

Aqua asked, “The what?”

“The giant, ultraviolet chains in the sky.”

Aqua looked up, didn’t see.

Qrow chuckled, “Faunus can see ultraviolet.”

“Really?” Aqua and Jaune asked.

Rufus pulled the canvas from under his arm. “Here. I sketched it.”

Everyone’s jaws dropped. He was a damn good artist.

He’d drawn Aqua at an easel, painting the night sky. Colossal chains pulled taught towards The End. Though… Aqua was the focus.

 

She blushed into her tea.

 


	6. Valkyrie

Nora Valkyrie landed in a bed of flowers.

She lay there for a long time, staring up at a vaulted ceiling, at the hole she’d put in it. And past that, at the night sky.

She wondered: That was a hard landing, right? Too hard? Or had the ceiling slowed her enough?

She wiggled her toes in her boots.

She remembered that half her classmates were dead. Whole teams of huntsman were annihilated along with her country. And among them, Pyrrha. Her heart ached.

Nora sniffed back her tears. She was going to Mistral, with Ruby and Jaune and… And Ren. She still had Ren. She could keep on going as long as she had Ren.

Her aura sparkled and tingled, suddenly reforming along her body with a hushed _whoosh._

Her senses refocused. Here and now.

The flower bed.

The ceiling.

The night sky.

That couldn’t be right; it was daytime. Had she passed out? Where was the moon?

Stars twinkled in space.

Doves passed over the building.

She couldn’t see the shattered moon, but rays of pale light angled through the hole and illuminated dust in the air.

In the heavens, a star flickered, then extinguished.

And then the pain of impact thrummed through her body.

Nora groaned “OOOOoooooowwwww.”

She stretched, grunting and groaning like a boar.

Purple petals. Jaune had shown these to everyone. Proof they were near Shion.

But where the heck was Jaune?

Where the heck was Nora?

She sat up and dusted her pink combat skirt, then hefted Magnhild. The Grenadier Warhammer wasn’t dented, and neither was she.

She reassured herself, “Any landing you can fight from…”

Her voice echoed in the hall, over pews, around columns.

She stood and looked at the altar.

This was a chapel. With a flowerbed in the center.

The doors creaked open, and a woman entered in a raspberry dress, ankle length. Russet hair down to her waist. Green eyes. An empty hand basket.

She stopped in the entryway, bewildered.

Nora connected the handbasket and the flowerbed, and realized, “Oh. Uh. Sorry.” She stepped out of the crushed shrubbery and scratched the back of her head. “Sorry about your flowers. I didn’t mean to… Where am I?”

The flower girl stepped into the moonlight and smiled at Nora. Not the way you smile at someone who’s okay.

Softly, she answered, “My name is Aeris. And this world is Traverse Town.”

They stared at each other.

Aeris clasped her hands together and forced a brighter smile.

Nora asked, “This _what?”_

Aeris’ smile soured down to sympathy. She cringed. “May I ask… What do you call the world you live on?”

Nora peered at her. “Are you okay in the head?”

Aeris looked down, licked her lips, then looked up with her smile renewed. “I came here to pick some flowers,” she decided. “If you can wait for a moment, then I can show you around. It might be easier that way.”

“We’re near Shion, right?” Nora pointed at the flowers.

“These are Shions,” Aeris nodded. She knelt beside undamaged blooms and collected them into her basket.

Nora scratched her head. Shion was supposed to be a village. How did it have a cathedral? How did she fall through the roof? Where was the team? Where was this place?

Aeris collected a few flowers, gently snipping the stems.

Nora checked the chapel’s shadows for motion. Weren’t there Grimm nearby? Wasn’t there a fight? She cupped her hands and shouted at the hole in the ceiling. “Ren? Ruby? Anybody?”

Aeris flinched, tossed her a sympathetic glance, then stood from her gathering, and gestured out the front. “Shall we?”

They pushed open the doors.

Traverse _Town_.

Nora raised her eyebrows at an urban center, raised her chin to look up eight-floor buildings made of red tile roofs and gray brick. A banner atop the skyline waved in the wind.

The cobblestone street was flat and neat as if machined. Gas street lamps with warped stems brought heat and light to the city night.

It sounded like the Vytal Festival, all commotion and motion. And the people dressed just as oddly. No two outfits seemed to match. Cultures and colors clashed like a patched blanket.

It smelled like a faunus labor camp. Like sweat and desperation.

Aeris walked briskly, made her way through crowds and foot traffic with elegant posture. Nora tried to keep up while she took in the sights. Every public wall was covered- layers deep- in missing persons posters.

Down winding streets and across unorthodox intersections, they arrived at a building- cozy like a cottage, but decorated as a place of business.

Aeris stopped at the door to dust her shoes.

Nora squinted at the business cottage, then read the sign above. “H. B. R. C…” She wasn’t good at this kind of thing. She folded her arms and asked, “What color is that?”

Aeris raised her eyebrows. “Hm?”

“HBRC. That’s a huntsman team, right?”

Aeris cringed again. “Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee.” She pushed open the door and invited Nora to follow her.

Nora hated waiting rooms. Like post offices, but only for bad news. This one didn’t have any plants. Just strange paintings on the wall- the kind that can’t offend or delight.

She tested the traction under her boots. Carpet. Nice carpet. Looking down, she noted a dirt clod on her shin. Just an hour ago, she’d been walking in sunshine and wilds. Where was she now? And when? It looked like midnight outside. Had she hit her head in the fall?

And why was Aeris so shy about the issue?

Nora nervously pressed her toe into the carpet, eyes traversing this clinically comforting room. “Sooooo… Hollow- HB- thing.  You guys fix castles?”

Aeris was distracted. Behind the greeting desk, she’d stopped at a framed picture: a young man with spiky, black hair and a cavalier smile. Vases flanked the picture, and Aeris replaced their flowers with those she’d picked.

Jaune had explained the blooms’ meaning: _I Won’t Forget You_.

Her ritual maintenance complete, Aeris set her basket on the desk, and gestured for Nora to approach. “So, what do you think of the town?” Aeris opened a drawer and slowly hefted a huge book from it.

“Uhhh…” Nora put her hands on the desk. “It’s, uh, great? It’s big! I’ve never heard of it. Are we… Where are we? Are we in Menagerie or something? Was I, like, in a coma for a month? I had a friend that happened to. Stop me if I’m talking too much, I’m kinda nervous right now. Who’s he?”

Nora pointed at the picture.

Aeris looked at the picture. “Zack,” she answered. “Zack Faire. He was… He’s a hero.”

Her gaze lingered. As if looking away was painful. But looking was more painful. She wrested herself from memories, and looked down at her open drawer. At the big book.

She hefted it onto the desk with a thump, then carefully opened it. The weight of so many pages was difficult on the spine.

“There,” she sighed. “Now, where did you say you were from? Before we take your message, I find it’s easiest to review others first. This can speed up the process. You know, in case your friends have left a message already.”

“The Process. Right.” Nora looked at the pages.

She saw a word in bold: Vvardenfell. Was that near Vacuo?

Then came names she couldn't pronounce, and messages beside each.

“Vale,” she answered. “I’m from Vale.”

Aeris licked her thumb and turned back the massive page.

These names, and the missing persons, connected in Nora’s mind. She wondered if they ever connected in real life.

And the night sky looked so odd. Something was menacing about it. Too dark. Too… Something was missing from it. The moon. The whole damn moon! Its asteroids and wreckage. She hadn’t seen any of it.

Nora stepped back from the counter. Her heart thrummed like a heavy drum.

This wasn’t happening. She’d probably landed on her head and was having a bad dream. But then why had she fallen in the first place? Maybe those really _weren’t_ safe mushrooms they’d eaten last night.

Or, maybe, this was real, and she was never going to see her friends again. Not any of them. No more Pyrrha. No more Ren.

Exactly five weeks ago, she’d looked up from a game on her scroll, high-fived Pyrrha, and tried her luck at a faire grounds competition. Her worst problem in life was _What if I’m not popular?_

She covered her mouth, tried to hide her panic.

Everything was falling apart.

Aeris had her head down in the book. “Let’s see… V… Valinor… Vaaaale…?”

Aeris had never heard of Vale. It was clear in her tone. And the whole damn moon was missing from the sky. Or, maybe this was a different sky. Exactly how lost was Nora?

Aeris looked up from her list. “Does your world have an alternate name?”

Nora swallowed. “Umm… Q-Quick question… Am I dead? Is this the afterlife? Because, I always imagined-“

Aeris shook her head. “No. We’re… We’re alive. We’re the survivors. But you’re coming closer to understanding. Do you mind if I tell you? Are you okay with… Talking about this now?”

“By ‘ _Tell_ ’ me… You mean tell me what’s going on?” Nora felt dizzy. This was gonna be weird and uncomfortable, she knew. She folded her arms. “We’re not on Remnant. Are we?”

Aeris asked “Remnant?” without a hint of recognition.

Nora took a knee, to avoid falling over. “Hoooo boy,” she strained.

Aeris flipped through the big book. “R… R… Rapture… Rivia… Oops… Remnant! And look, I have several entries already! We might have you back with friends in no time!” She forced a practiced smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Nora didn’t answer. She’d believed, with Ruby, that they could go to Mistral and finish their training. That they could walk there without a compass. She’d used exactly the phrase, “I mean, come on! How lost can we get?”

Well…

Aeris leaned over the desk to smile down at her. “Do you know anyone named…” she checked her book and sounded out “Yang Xiao Long?”

So she wasn’t alone. Nora nodded. “Yeah. She’s my teammate’s sister. Is she here?”

Aeris consulted the book. “Miss Blake Belladonna left a message for her. It just says, ‘I’m sorry.’ Could you pass that along if you find her?”

Nora rested her face in her hand. “Sorry doesn’t cut it. Yang would probably punch me if I said that.”

Aeris frowned. “It’s important that we-“

“I’ll tell Yang she said hi.” Nora sighed. She didn't want to get up from the floor.

Aeris looked upset with her, but diverted her glare to the book again. “How about a Miss Neapolitan?”

Nora shook her head.

“Roman Torchwick?”

“Ruby watched him get eaten by a Griffon, so… He’s dead.”

_Survivors_ , Aeris had said. _We’re the survivors._ So what exactly had happened to Vale? To Remnant? To Vvard-whatever and these countless other worlds?

What had Cinder done? And why? Why in the hell would someone murder Pyrrha and destroy a whole world?

Aeris asked “How about Mercury Black? Does that ring a bell?”

Nora knew that name very well. All of Remnant knew that name. Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black were a team. They were responsible.

She felt something cold and calculating assuming control of her. It had focus, like when she was studying; passion, like when she courted Ren; and anger, a unique anger that she only felt for those names.

Nora perked up and feigned her normal attitude. “Is he here?”

Aeris nodded. “Yes. But first-“

“Where are they?”

Aeris looked up from the book, concerned. She’d noted the change in tone. Nora scolded herself silently- always wearing her heart on her sleeve. This was a job for Ren.

Aeris asked, “Do you know Mercury?”

Nora took a breath and readied herself for the cold anger, for the discomfort of becoming it and relying on it. She’d once asked Blake what it was like, to be a killer. How to do it, emotionally. She’d described something like this. The calculating predator wore her face and lied, “We’re friends.”

Aeris looked down into her book. “Mercury left a message for someone named Fall.”

Nora stood, no longer dizzy, and repeated, “Where is he?” With perfect innocence.

She felt like she’d swallowed a bug.

Aeris answered, “He’s waiting in the non-human quarter with-“ but stopped when she looked up. She glanced to Nora’s fist- Clenched- then stood straight and backed away.

Nora relaxed her fist. “Look, I wanna see my friends ag-“

“Your eyes,” Aeris noted. “They were blue in the chapel.”

Nora touched her face. “What?” She shook her head. “Oh. Yeah, my aura turns them green sometimes. Look-“

“They’re gold,” Aeris corrected. She stepped back again, away from Nora. “I want you to leave.”

Nora frowned. “I wanna leave a message for my friends.”

The door opened, and a man’s boots scraped the entry rug. Nora turned to see spiky, blonde hair, a red scarf, and blue eyes that shone like a huntsman’s. Over his shoulder was a sword no normal man could carry.

“Cloud!” Aeris sounded scared. Like he had to save her.

And Cloud seemed poised to do exactly that. He halted when his eyes met Nora’s.

“Another one,” he noted.

“Another what? What’s wrong with my eyes? What do you mean they’re golden?”

Cloud held open the door, then gestured through it.

Nora frowned harder. Whatever. There was a faunus district somewhere with Mercury Black in it. That at least gave her something to do. She didn’t like that these people didn’t like her.

She grumbled, “Sorry I upset you all. Thanks for the help, Aeris.”

Aeris didn’t answer. She looked at Nora like a Grimm.

Nora walked out, and Cloud shut the door behind her.

The smell hit her again. Desperation. Unkempt city streets. People slept in doorways and piled against streetlamps. They looked as if all hope and motivation had left them.

Of course. Their worlds were destroyed. They were refugees.

Like her.

No. Nora wasn’t broken yet. She still had passions. She wished for a second chance to die fighting in Vale. That counted for something. She had to reunite with Ruby and Jaune. And Ren. Her friends would keep her going, too.

And then there was the matter at hand.

The gods had given her enemies, to keep her sharp.

Nora hefted Magnhild.


	7. Traverse Town

Weather rarely changed in Traverse Town. Long-time residents had noticed the wind picking up when newcomers arrived. Flags and whistles on the taller buildings served as alarms, For Heartless often followed those refugees.

A breeze whistled now over 8th District. Feline ears flicked to attention, and their owner, a young huntress, watched Flags atop the tenements rise and flap wildly. She observed the strange city from these rooftops, nameless behind a bone bask, hiding and watching from shadows, living the life she thought she’d left behind.

In Fifth District, Sun Wukong had found a helpful citizen. He asked her for the third time, “Okay, but… Where am I?”  
Yuffie squinted at him, then tilted her ear up to the wind whistles.

In Third District, a lagomorph lifted one rabbitty ear and asked, “Coco? Does that sound like an alarm to you?”  
Coco Adel had taken to the city instantly. She was occupied with a hat rack, but noted the shopkeep’s worried expression, Then Velvet’s.  
Coco patted her friend. “Hey. You scared?”  
“That sound reminds me of the siren. You know, the breach.”  
A shadow sped past the storefront.  
“Good,” Coco nodded. “We won that battle.”   
She put the new hat atop her head. “I’ll pay when I get back,” she announced, and sauntered into battle.

The wind carried into Sixth District. There, every dark place shimmered like puddles on moonless nights. Yellow eyes blinked to life. Claws and bodies emerged from the ripples, into the light, and followed their hunger towards hearts. But even beasts like these acknowledged power. 

One heart stood out: Driven, angry, and despairing. Instinct bade the shadows slither that way to obey. 

A Shadow waddled down the street, to the mouth of an alley, and stared down it. The Shadow did not see crates, nor clothes, nor color. Three hearts beat in the alleyway. Two turned to it, then accelerated in fear.

The third reassured them, “The Grimm won’t hurt us. Not while we’ve got Salem’s blessing. Isn’t that right, little shadow?”

The Shadow had once spoken and understood words. It had been born and given a name. In death, it only consumed and obeyed and crawled towards the darkest places. And this was not the darkest place. It turned and carried on down the street, towards the heart that stood out.

It turned down another alley, and there found Nora Valkyrie. She knelt with her kit laid out on a blanket, carefully mixing Dust into a 40mm grenade.

On a long gone day, she’d picked a pink and white combat dress. Later, she’d asked a tailor to add a heart-shaped keyhole where cleavage met chest. She’d looked cute then. She hadn’t known that her dear friend Pyrrha would immolate and gasp and choke on her own cooked flesh while-

Nora looked up at the Shadow. “Stop that,” she ordered.   
The Shadow blinked. Nora finished pouring her mixture, then screwed the payload shut and found a hex wrench to secure it with. As she reached across her kit, a burning tear fell from her cheek. 

“I don’t have time for you,” she explained. She hefted Mjolnir, cracked the revolver action, and began loading her custom rounds.

The Shadow waited patiently for its orders. On instinct, it reached out again for her heart, to the day Pyrrha said, “We’re friends, right? Can you keep a secret?”  
Nora brushed a hair behind her head and blushed. Her first friend at Beacon! This was wild!  
“Y-Yeah- YES! OH MY GOSH YES! But not- haha- you know, in an overbearing or creepy way, oh no you’ve got an expression like it’s creepy. Sorry, Pyrrha.”  
And Pyrrha, Saint Nikos, who loved the world and everyone in it, giggled along with her.  
“Oh gosh, you too? I feel so anxious. I mean, I’m away from home- not for the first time or anything- I’m not sheltered. But… I don’t know, it’s good to have friends. And I feel like… Well, we’re teammates!” She beamed.  
Nora beamed back. Really smiled the way that she couldn’t fake. And to commemorate this moment, she shouted, “YeeeaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH! BEST BUDDIES!”  
Pyrrha laughed and added, “Hurrah!”  
“So,” Nora remembered, “Why do you ask? You got a secret I have to keep? Is it your crush on Jaune?”  
Pyrrha blushed and hid her terror behind a biology textbook. “N-No,” she whispered hoarsely.  
Nora plowed on. “Well then, what is it?”  
“It’s, um…” She lowered the textbook. Gone was her mirth and embarrassment. Her face as it was the last time their eyes met: City lights, the night rain, a bleeding scratch, her pain.   
“I want you to avenge me, Nora.”

Nora lashed out at the Shadow. “I said stop that!”  
Her fist knocked it onto its back. The Shadow stood again, and offered out its clawed hand. Offered, she realized, its claws. Another shadow entered the alley. Then two more. They each stopped before her, repeating the gesture.

She waved them off. “Go stand over there!”  
They all hustled to where she pointed.

Nora wiped the tears from her eyes. She had to focus. To remember her plan. If she made any mistakes against Mercury Black, she would die.

She had to win. This was her duty as a Huntsman. To save lives, sometimes you had to take lives. If she didn’t kill everyone in Mercury Black’s gang, and everyone in the White Fang, and everyone in Torchwick’s Gang, and everyone with Cinder Fall, then they would go on to hurt more people. They would kill Pyrrha all over again. Someone else’s Pyrrha. Someone else’s mother or father or whole city.

Nora looked at the Shadows again. Their little troop had bunched up where she’d ordered. They’d obeyed her.

She pointed across the alleyway. “Move there.”  
They did, all hustling, then stopping and waiting.

The Grimm... Obeyed her. She’d heard rumors about Cinder Fall. She’d heard fables from the distant past. In all of these stories, such power belonged only to the evilest of intents. Vengeful spirits and obsessed evildoers. And every one of them had had their way.

Nora smiled. Really smiled the way you can’t around your friends, lips curling and twitching. She was going to lead an army of Grimm and attack a city and get her revenge.

She shook her head. This sounded familiar. This sounded way too familiar. But she was the good guy. She had to remember that she was in the right, here. Mercury Black was the bad guy and if she didn’t stop him, then was she ever really Pyrrha’s friend?

She didn’t know. She couldn’t tell where her anger stopped and pure darkness began. Where was the limit of her righteous fury, the ledge past which she dare not stray?

Boots hit cobble down the street. Someone was coming, but not from Mercury’s direction. And here Nora was, commanding Grimm and looking like a bad guy.

She hissed at the monsters, “Hide,” and marveled at their speed. They flattened into proper shadows, and slithered into natural darkness. They’d left no footprints, no scratches from their claws on the cobblestones. Only that sick feeling squirming in her chest proved they remained.

Nora sighed her adrenaline free just as Cloud Strife rounded the corner. A casual pace carrying him to the head of the alleyway. He turned in and murmured, “There you are.”  
He carried his sword over shoulder like a tree trunk, and wore a scarf to hide all but his eyes. Nora noted the glow behind them.  
“You again.” She tried not to sneer.

Cloud stopped at a distance and crouched to her level. Examining her kit, he mumbled, “Let me guess: That alley over there with the three tough guys. One of them is Mercury?”  
Nora didn’t answer. She arranged her tools and started rolling them up.

“Aerith sent me,” Cloud explained. “Not to stop you.”  
“Good.” She tied her bundle and stuffed it into her pack.

“She told me about your team. Your world. You’ve got friends, right?"

If Ruby and Jaune were here, would they stop her? No. Of course not. Ren might hesitate and caution, but he always did that. But then she imagined… What if She were advising Them? If Jaune were in this alleyway, planning his assault one street over, what would his face look like? Would she worry that he was on a path to self-destruction? 

Nora glared at Cloud, but nodded.

Cloud jerked his thumb down the street. “And you’re going to fight this guy without them?”

Could she even kill Mercury Black?  
And if she looked in a mirror right now, what would she see through her tears?

She hadn’t thought any of this decision through. Maybe Mercury needed to be killed, but she couldn’t do that alone. She was here because she wanted revenge.  
At Beacon, The elevator from the ground floor to Ozpin’s office was about a one minute ride. She wondered what Pyrrha thought on the way up. What she felt. Knowing Pyrrha, there was probably not a single second of doubt.  
And even she had fallen.

Nora’s tears finally boiled over her cheeks and streamed from her eyes. She cried quietly, sniffling in front of this stranger, and still mourning her months dead friend.

Cloud had a certain generosity in his tone. Warmth. He offered, "I can tell you've never killed a person before. That kind of innocence is worth something, Nora."

She whispered, to not scream. “But they killed her. They took Pyrrha from us. And we’re never going to see her again.”

The truth, finally, had penetrated hope’s last citadel in her heart.

Cloud nodded. He lowered his scarf, to reveal his frown, then offered, “There’s a café in 1st district. Come on. Let me tell you about a guy named Zack Fair.”


End file.
